Absolution (The Penton Vampire Legacy)

by Susannah Sandlin

  Mirren sat up, fast as lightning, and clamped a big hand over her mouth. “Stop.”

  She bit his finger hard enough to draw a mouthful of blood, and he jerked his hand away.

  He held his bleeding finger in a hushing gesture. “We only have a half hour until I’m out for the day. I just wanted to warn you about something. As of tomorrow, you have a babysitter.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Glory finished stacking the last can of tuna on the superette shelves and glared out the window while she faltened cardboard cartons and took them to the recycling stack in front of the store. Mark Calvert waved at her from his car, where he’d been sitting outside the door for the last four hours.

  Damn it. Mirren hadn’t been kidding about the babysitter business. Melissa had been at the house as soon as Glory was dressed for work, had joined her for breakfast, and had followed her to the superette. Mark had swapped out for the afternoon while Melissa worked at the clinic dealing with a cold making its rounds among the Penton humans. Mark had been sitting in his car, watching the door lest she escape, and reading a book all afternoon.

  Glory knew it was for her own safety, but she hated it. First, she didn’t have any privacy. Second, she felt stupid. Third, Mark and Melissa were nice as could be about it, but they had to think it was the most idiotic thing in the world, babysitting the poor human who couldn’t be trusted to not run straight into the hands of Matthias the Terrible. She’d tried to assure them she wasn’t going anywhere, but both of them had explained that they weren’t afraid she’d leave; they were afraid Matthias might hire a human to grab her during daylight hours.

  She couldn’t argue with that.

  After work, since she had a ride whether she wanted it or not, Glory picked up some groceries. She’d decided to roast some lamb chops after learning lamb had been one of Mirren’s favorites back in the olden days. Seriously olden days. After overhearing the term gallowglass used for him a couple of times, she’d also made Mark take her to the library at lunch so she could do some online research.

  Now she knew where the sword came from. He’d probably had it at least four hundred years, given that the famous mercenaries disappeared from Ireland about 1600. Mirren really was a warrior, literally, and if the stories about the gallowglass were true, he had trained to kill from the time he could walk. No wonder he thought of himself as violence on legs.

  Hefting her grocery bags, she walked to Mark’s car and piled them in the backseat before joining him. “Home, James. And you might as well call Mel and see if she wants to have dinner. Since you guys are fams for Aidan and Krys, and you’re under orders not to leave me alone, all our vampires can have lamb for dinner.”

  Mark laughed and steered the car west toward Mirren’s house. “I know you hate it, but it won’t be forever. Aidan and Mirren are going to meet with some guy from the Tribunal tonight, see what they can find out about Matthias, and send a team on a little Matthias hunt to try and take him out. Once we get him off our backs, we all can settle down and get back to normal—not just you, but Will too. All of us.”

  Normal. Glory wasn’t sure her normal and Mark’s normal had much in common, but she was beginning to think Mark’s normal was the one she wanted. Now that she’d been with Mirren, she couldn’t imagine leaving him. Of course, she’d practically forced the man to have sex with her; he might be ready to see her leaving Penton forever.

  It would be whatever it was. Glory believed in living life as it came. She’d enjoy whatever time she could share with Mirren and see where things took her next. She could start over again if she had to.

  Despite her protests that she could cook dinner without a guard, Mark insisted on coming inside and sat on the stool in the kitchen, watching while she seasoned the lamb chops. Glory hadn’t had that many opportunities to cook for anyone besides herself, so she’d taken the rest of her lunch hour to study online recipes and decide what ingredients she wanted to use. She’d picked out a honey-balsamic glaze for the lamb and, while it was basting, put new potatoes on to boil and made a salad.

  She’d timed everything to be done about an hour before sunset, so they could eat before their respective vampires rose for the evening.

  “So, does this really work?” Melissa had brought enough plates with her for each of them and set them out so they could fill them from the stove. Mirren didn’t have a dining table, but they could eat in the living room around the coffee table. “I don’t know what Aidan liked to eat in his human life, but I’m gonna ask him—this is a great idea.” She turned to Mark. “Do you know about Krys?”

  “I don’t.” He poured himself a glass of wine. “She wasn’t here that long before Aidan was forced to turn her.”

  Glory wondered if it bothered either of them to be fams for someone of the opposite sex. Now that she’d been Mirren’s fam for a little while, she thought she might tear out the eyeballs of any other woman who wanted to be his feeder.

  No way to find out without asking. While Mark took his wine into the living room and fiddled with Mirren’s TV—Glory started to warn him about how possessive Mirren got over the thing, but figured Mark would find out soon enough—she cornered Melissa in the kitchen. “Does it bother you that Mark is Krys’s fam?”

  Melissa leaned into the doorway to make sure her husband was occupied. “It did at first. I mean, it’s really intimate—you know that—but it’s not sexual. I was Aidan’s fam even before I met Mark, and I know how much Aidan and Krys love each other. So I had to get over it and remember that since it’s not a sexual thing with Aidan and me, it isn’t for Krys and Mark, either.”

  It might not be sexual for them, but Glory couldn’t imagine separating the intimacy of feeding from the sex, now that she’d experienced what feeding should feel like.

  She pulled the chops out of the oven and tested them: perfect. She used a big fork to slide them onto the plates.

  Melissa poured the butter sauce on the potatoes. “Can I ask a nosy question?”

  Glory put the roasting pan in the sink and ran water in it so it would be easier to clean later. “Sure, I guess.”

  “You and Mirren. It’s more than just a fam relationship, isn’t it?”

  Glory felt her skin heat, and Melissa laughed.

  “Never mind. That blush pretty much answered my question. I only ask because I like Mirren. He’s been alone as long as I’ve known him, and I think it’s great you two found each other. He’s such a curmudgeon—no offense—that I didn’t figure he’d ever give anybody a chance to get to know him.”

  Glory smiled. “That grumpy thing is mostly an act, but don’t tell him I gave away his secret.”

  They ate around the TV, watching an old Hitchcock film Melissa had brought from home, then cleaned up the dishes. By the time Glory heard Mirren coming through the hatch from the basement, they’d all gathered back in the living room with wine.

  Mirren paused in the doorway, frowning at his TV. Glory could practically see him biting his tongue to keep from bitching about them touching his electronics and was proud to see him make do with a scowl and a grunt of greeting.

  Mark poured him a glass of bourbon. “You and Aidan and Krys are all having a fine dining experience tonight, thanks to Glory.” He grinned at Mirren. “I think she’s onto something with this cooking. She’s really, really good.”

  Mirren’s gaze fixed on Glory, and she felt her skin warm again when his eyes grew lighter. Thank God she had such a dark complexion. Otherwise, she’d be red as a tomato under the weight of his look.

  She left Mark and Melissa brainstorming over the idea of her starting a catering business for fams and slipped into the back bedroom. Mirren wasn’t far behind.

  “I didn’t know if you’d want to feed while they were here, but I knew y’all were going out to meet with that Tribunal guy tonight and—”

  “Stop.” Mirren lay on the bed and pulled her down beside him.

  “You keep saying that.”

  “And yet you keep talking.�
��

  She laughed as he kissed her and ran his lips along her jawline and down to her collarbone. He smelled of soap and damp skin, so she knew he’d taken a quick shower before coming upstairs.

  Glory gasped as Mirren slid his hand between her legs and began a steady rhythm with his fingers through her jeans. “I want my mouth there later tonight,” he mumbled. “And there’s a vein in that neighborhood I want to taste too.” He lifted his head and smiled at her writhing under his fingers. “I might have to try it now.”

  “No!” Glory squeaked and felt herself blush when he gave a low, rumbling laugh. “Aidan will be here any minute, and they’ll know what we’re…we can’t…oh.” She moaned as he lowered his mouth to her neck and bit. Between the pull at her neck and the work of those big, rough fingers, she was on the edge of an orgasm before she could say lamb chop.

  Then he stopped. “Just to tide you over until later,” he whispered, then rolled to his feet and gave her a sultry, X-rated look over his shoulder as he opened the door back into the hallway.

  “You are gonna pay for that, vampire,” she hissed, groaning at the sound of his soft laughter as he went back into the living room.

  Glory got to her feet and ran a brush through her hair. Nothing she could do about the glazed eyes staring back at her in the mirror or the pink flush to her cheeks. Damn him. Next time, she’d tie him to something he couldn’t break.

  She returned to the living room to find Mirren sitting with Mark and Melissa, sipping his whiskey like nothing had happened.

  “Aidan’s here,” Mirren said. Glory hadn’t heard anything, but a few seconds later, a dark-blue BM W pulled into the driveway. She kept forgetting about that supersenses vampire thing, but at least their arrival kept her from keeping her blushing, still semiaroused self in the living room with the rest of them. Instead, she went to the door, opened it, and waited for Aidan to come inside.

  Krys was with him, and Glory was glad to see her. Krys wasn’t a very vampirelike vampire, maybe because she’d only been turned a couple of months ago. Melissa had told her their story, and it was hard to believe Aidan had kidnapped Krys and she fell for him anyway, although she still gave him a hard time about enthralling her so much in the beginning. And then he had to turn her vampire to save her life.

  Krys seemed like the type of girlfriend Glory had always wished for—she and Melissa both. The three women and Mark planned to watch movies while Aidan and Mirren dealt with their Tribunal guy.

  Glory hoped the man—Lorenzo something—really was on their side. She could tell from his expression that Mirren didn’t trust him as fully as Aidan did. But it would be worth talking to Satan himself if it would mean getting Matthias off their backs. She wanted to see what she and Mirren could have together, if anything, once he wasn’t feeling obligated to protect her and she wasn’t afraid to leave.

  “Hey there.” She and Krys hugged as the taller woman reached the doorway, and Glory stepped back to let Aidan inside.

  “Hi, Glory.” He stopped next to her and paused, examining her with a frown. He shifted his stare to Mirren, and his eyes widened. “Holy hell.”

  “What’s wrong?” Krys and Glory asked the question in tandem.

  Mirren frowned at Aidan. “What’s the problem, A?”

  Aidan grinned. “Hell, I should have brought champagne.”

  Glory looked at Mirren with raised brows. He shrugged and asked, “What have you been smoking?”

  Aidan’s smile faltered, and he stared at Mirren a moment before shaking his head. “Never mind, my mistake. You ready to go talk to Renz? He’s meeting us downtown.”

  Krys and Glory exchanged questioning glances. Something weird had just happened, but Glory wasn’t sure what, and Mirren’s face could appear in the encyclopedia next to the word puzzled.

  “You don’t want to feed first?” Melissa had stood up when Aidan arrived, but hesitated now. Whatever had happened, she wasn’t in on it, either.

  “Not now. I’ll find you later.” Aidan turned back toward the door. “Mirren and I need to get going.”

  Mirren gave Glory a heated wink on his way past, which made her heart do a flip-flop. Good grief. The man made her feel like a giddy teenager. Car doors slammed, and a few seconds later, Aidan’s car pulled out of the drive.

  “What the heck just happened?” she asked Krys.

  Aidan’s mate shook her head. “I have no idea. Vampires—who can figure ’em out?”

  Melissa and Glory laughed.

  “Seriously.” Krys threw up her hands. “I might be one, but I still don’t understand them.” She settled on the sofa and crooked a finger at Mark. “Aidan can abstain all he wants to, but I’m a baby vamp and I need you.”

  Laughing, he sat next to her and rolled up his sleeve. Glory watched, fascinated, as Krys took his arm, licked a spot over the vein on his inner arm, and bit. He flinched but then settled back on the sofa with his eyes closed while Krys fed.

  So that’s how it was—not nearly as sensual as feeding from the neck, body to body. Glory hadn’t realized that she and Mirren had gone the intimate route from the start, whether consciously or not. She didn’t think he’d intended to make her his fam, not at first. Their chemistry—or whatever it was—had gotten away from them, and they fell into it naturally.

  She was glad. It had taken that intense experience to erase the fear and pain Matthias and his brutal little clique had instilled in her about feeding. She knew now how easy it would have been for them to make it at least bearable for her, but they hadn’t bothered.

  Krys’s cell phone rang, and she released Mark’s arm with a sigh, licking the wound to heal it. She dug the phone out of her pocket, glanced at the screen, and pushed the talk button. “Hey, Aidan.” She nodded a couple of times, blinked twice, and turned to stare at Glory.

  What the heck is going on? Glory took the armchair next to the sofa, waiting for Krys to end the call. When she did, she set the phone on the coffee table and bit her lip, trying hard not to laugh—and failing.

  “Mark, Aidan asks if you and Mel can get a suite below the clinic set up for Renz Caias to use tonight,” Krys said. “I need to talk to Glory about something.”

  Glory shifted in the armchair, fidgeting. First, Aidan had acted weird, and now Krys was about to bust a gut over whatever he’d told her on the phone. What could have happened?

  CHAPTER 23

  Mirren slammed a fist against the dash of Aidan’s car, denting the door to the glove compartment. “What do you mean, mated? I’m not mated to Glory, or anybody else. You have to, I don’t know, do something to be mated. Vampires can’t be accidentally mated. You’re so full of shit.”

  Aidan shook his head, grinning. As soon as he’d broken the news to Mirren, he’d called Krys so she could talk to Glory and explain what it meant for a human to be mated to a vampire. Krys had still been human when they’d been joined, although his brother’s attack had changed their status to a vampire union not too long afterward.

  Mirren clutched the door handle like he was about to bolt out of the moving car and run all the way to Atlanta, so Aidan pulled off on a side street a block from their rendezvous spot at the municipal building. They had a little extra time—he’d planned to feed before leaving Mirren’s, but as soon as he realized Mirren and his new mate didn’t know what they’d done, he thought he’d better get the big guy out of there. Who knew how he’d react?

  “Look, not to put too fine a spin on it, here’s all it takes for a vampire mating.” Aidan killed the engine and turned toward Mirren, who frowned straight ahead, his body as stiff as if someone had stuck a two-by-four down the back of his shirt. “One, a strong chemistry that involves some kind of vampire hormonal shit I can’t explain, but chemistry works as well as anything else I could use to explain it. Two, you gotta have sex. And three, there has to be a blood exchange that takes place either during the sex or really close. Those three things had to have happened because those mating bonds are in place. If I can sense
them, I guarantee you Renz will be able to as well, because he’s so old. Not to mention Randa and Tanner—everyone who’s blood-bonded to you.”

  “But we didn’t…” Mirren stared at him a moment, then closed his eyes and beat his head on the back of the car seat. “Aw, fuck me. We did.”

  Aidan laughed. “Only you could get mated by accident. Man, that’s seriously screwed up.” He wasn’t sure how the situation would turn out in the long run, but it had at least added a moment of lightness to a stressful week. Hell, a stressful two months.

  Mirren stared at the overhead light as if mesmerized. In shock, more likely. “How do we undo it?”

  Aidan studied him. It was a knee-jerk reaction on Mirren’s part; he’d probably have the same one if his and Krys’s mating had happened this way. God knows he’d fought his own mating long enough. “Don’t even think about trying to undo it—not for a while, anyway.”

  Mirren twisted in his seat, as much as a man his size could twist in a car seat. “But—”

  “Seriously, man. She’s good for you. Wait a while. See how it works out.” Aidan tried a different tack. “How many of those sorry vampires did you off last night?”

  Mirren shrugged. “Twenty. Why? What does that have to do with my mate?” He spat the word as if it tasted sour on his tongue.

  “How many scars did you make on yourself with that acid of yours after last night’s battle?”

  Mirren frowned and didn’t answer.

  Aidan was determined to drive this point home. Glory was good for Mirren. He probably thought she was a distraction, but sometimes a little distraction was healthy. “When was the first time there were people at your house besides me that didn’t involve some vampire crisis?”